“A prime reason the federal Liberal and Nationals Government is building the Inland Rail is to reduce the cost per-tonne of moving freight from farms onto domestic and export markets,” Mr McCormack said.

“Inland Rail is going to make great cost-savings into the future and that money will be shared among our farmers and regional communities, creating future economic opportunities and jobs… it’s going to be a real game-changer.”

CSIRO worked in consultation with industry, transport providers, as well as local and governments.

TraNSIT maps in detail the path to market for each commodity and each region. That includes road conditions, speed, vehicles, trains, axle loads and so on.

It analyses all combinations of routes and transport modes and identifies the optimal freight supply chain combination.

It has been used on a number of freight projects, such as Northern Beef Roads.

For Inland Rail, TraNSIT factored in intermodal freight hubs, the impact of thier potential locations, new industries which might use them and the upside from improving existing facilities.